Taboo
by Shi-koi
Summary: Yaoi - ItaNaru - When Naruto ends up in another world very similar to his own, where the Yondaime is alive and the Uchiha clan is thriving, he finds out that sometimes, the last things we ever want to see are the truths we are faced with.
1. Chapter 1

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Title: _**Taboo**_

Fandom: Naruto

Author: Shi-koi

Warnings: Shonen-ai/Yaoi/BL. Romance. Angst-ish-y stuff. Bad language. Lots of it. (Naruto had a few bad words when he gets mad/upset etc). Violence (as per usual), sporadic action (may decrease then increase as the story progresses). Tissue warning. AU. Dimension-hop.

Rating: R

Genre: Romance, angst, action.

Pairings: ItaNaru. Mentions of previous SasuNaru before Naruto crosses over. May have other minor pairings. I'm not listing every little possibility. Heh. That would give the game away.

**Summary: (ItaNaru) When Naruto ends up in another world very similar to his own, where the Yondaime is alive and the Uchiha clan is thriving, he finds out that sometimes, the last things we ever want to see are the truths we are faced with. Previous SasuNaruSasu mentioned. Action. Romance. Violence.**

Feedback: Hell yes! Good, bad, ugly. I'm curious. Let me know regardless.

Disclaimer: Not mine. ::breaks down and cries::

Notes: Because I've always wanted to write this pairing, and I wanted to know if I could do it. Pure writers' curiosity. That's all. Yep. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. ::blows raspberry::

Naruto is 17. AU-Minato is 26. AU-Kakashi is 19. AU-Itachi is 16. AU-Sasuke is 11. All other relevant ages are as standard.

Fic Notes: In the AU, Minato never had to fight the Kyuubi, it didn't exist, so he wasn't killed. He never had a son and so he took on Itachi as a sort of apprentice. With someone outside of his clan to take charge and test himself on, Itachi never went down that dark path. He _is_ a Jounin, and an ANBU captain though, who answers only to the Yondaime. The Uchiha clan is still large and thriving.

Naruto never found out who his father was, so he has no idea that in his universe, the Yondaime was his dad.

Writing Playlist: '_Itsuwari no Musette', 'Madrigal', 'Bois de Merveilles', 'GARDENIA' _and _'Syunikiss' _by Malice Mizer, _'Kimi Ga Matteiru Kara', 'Kimi no Tameni Dekiru Koto (6th Day)' _and _'Sayonara'_ by Gackt, _'Crucify My Love', 'Rusty Nail' _and _'Kurenai' _by X Japan. _'Hisoka Norowareta Tsukiya no Kioku' _and _'Tsuzuki Asato'_ from Yami no Matsuei OST I Hiro no Tsuki . _'Pulse Whenever'_ by Okiayu Ryuutaro from the DNAngel Vocal Collection. _'Anywhere' _by Avantasia, _'Is There Anybody There', 'Send Me An Angel', 'Moments Of Glory' _and _'You And I' _by the Skorpions, _'Beautiful People'_ by Marilyn Manson, _'Verdammt Ich Lieb Dich' _by Mathias Reim, _'Schwarz' _by die prinzen (Weiss Kreuz). _'Bokura no Boken' _by Kids Alive from the Hikaru no Go soundtrack. _'Clint Eastwood'_ and _'Dracula' _by Gorillaz. _'Engel', 'Du Hast', 'Der Meister' _and _'Wollt Lhr Das Bett in Flammen' _by Rammstein. _'Prendre Racine' _by Calogero. '_Protege Moi' _by Placebo. _'I Don't Know You Anymore' _by Savage Garden.

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**EXTRA**: I wasn't sure about writing this as a Shonen-ai/Yaoi/BL fic, but halfway through the second chapter my partner made a comment about one of the lines and said that it sounded as though Itachi had a thing for Naruto. I was stunned, to put it mildly.

Then we had an argument about all the characters on _Naruto_ actually being gay. I laughed and said that was ridiculous.

He then pointed out that with all the teams being three-man units was just begging for emotional attachments. He asked me if I'd ever noticed that in the army the smallest units were always a minimum of six-man teams (occasionally four – but that was rare). I said no. He said that was so there were no 'Inappropriate attachments', since being in close quarters with a small team for a long period of time _will_ have a profound effect on the members of the team.

He said that, especially in life and death situations, people become closer, and that in _Naruto_ there was more than enough evidence to support that there could be more than one relationship going on behind the scenes.

He said that it certainly seemed as though Sasuke and Naruto had something going on, things were too intense between them for anything else, and that Ino and Sakura were prime Shoujo-ai/Yuri candidates – which I have to agree with, especially since Ino had a rather large fixation on Sakura for quite some time. (As a side note, I _adore_ this pairing and story addresses are more than welcome)

I asked if he thought everyone was gay.

_Then_, out of all the damn luck in the universe...an hour later we were watching Dr Who (with Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor) and Captain Jack bloody damn well kissed the Doctor (full on the lips properly) after kissing Rose. Guess who had a laughing fit at me and said that his point was thus proven right.

I stand corrected. All of the _Naruto_ cast is, in fact, gay. Bent as a six-pound note, as my other half likes to say.

Shi-koi

(Who now has another two dozen damn plot-bunnies running around in her brain)

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**Prologue**

_01-verse_

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The Three Legendary Sannin were together again on the same battleground. Two on one side, fighting to protect their dearest, precious people, and on the other, the one with the invading army. Fighting to destroy what was not his. 

Two and a half months of minor skirmishes along Konoha's bordering wall and the surrounding forest had everyone tense and agitated, most half-expecting this final conflict, some eagerly anticipating the upcoming battle if for no other reason than to have a decisive end to the fighting.

Leaf shinobi lined the top of the wall around the main gates, black and green visible on every available point. Others were hidden in their positions, some in the meadow beside two gigantic creatures, some hidden in the trees on Konohas' side.

Opposite them were two equally large creatures, surrounded by ninja with the Sound symbol on their hitae-ate. Black and grey covered the forest and grass beside the Snake Sannin, their numbers easily three time those of the Leaf.

As if from an unseen signal the fighting started. Figures blurred across the battleground, red blood spraying across the green of the grass and leaves. Traps explodes, the ground shook, fire blazed across the earth, leaving huge furrows in which the bodies they left behind still smoked.

The battle was mostly silent, punctuated by the occasional scream of agony or the yell of a jutsu. Everyone here knew what to expect. Dirty tricks, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Taijutsu and just plain sheer luck made the battle what it was.

Within Konoha's main living area, people were silently evacuated to the hidden caves and tunnels, then moved to the secret places that no-one other than the Hokage knew about. They had to create a new area for the people to hide, since their enemies had once been of the Leaf. Orochimaru knew every tunnel, every cave, every evacuation point. Even the newer ones were unsafe since Uchiha Sasuke's defection back to Orochimaru's side.

On the back of a massive slug that guarded the area just before the gates stood two people. A woman with blonde hair and a slender pink-haired girl. Next to them was an equally massive orange toad with two males standing on his head. One white-haired, one blonde, both of them with their hair in long pony-tails that blew in the wind.

On the other side Orochimaru stood on the head of an enormous snake with Kabuto, his silver-haired assistant, the huge salamander beside him had only one black-haired red-eyed figure. Sasuke.

There was a lull in the fighting as the long lizard's tail slashed out into the ninja below, most of them jumping to safety. The few who didn't were sliced into two by the force and speed of the blow. The snake slid forward beside the other creature.

Sakura turned to the blonde-haired woman beside her, her green eyes dark and hard. "Hokage-sama, it's not safe for you any more."

Tsunade, the Godaime nodded, she'd expected her apprentice to say something to her soon. Her place now was not on the battlefield, she was still needed to guide and heal her shinobi. One leap took her off the back of the slug and onto the city wall.

Sakura wore the same ANBU uniform as Naruto, the mask pushed to rest on her hair was that of a laughing butterfly with many bright colours. It was a marked contrast to Naruto's own crimson slashed white of a grinning fox.

"Naruto!" Sakura called across the gap between them, "Now!" She pulled her mask down at the same time as Naruto, his own blue eyes long since having been stained a bloody red from the fever of battle.

Naruto nodded once curtly, before hopping off the head of the giant toad, leaving Jiraiya standing in the wake of the blast of air his jump caused. He came down mid-field with a large blue rasengan in each palm, a screaming battle-cry echoing loudly across the bloody field.

He landed with an almost anti-climatic silence, and a delay of three seconds before the power in the the two rasengan exploded outward, shredding the earth into the air, large shards of rock slicing through the air and into the enemy, the sheer mass of them unable for most of the Sound to avoid.

The Leaf shinobi fell back to their places, carrying as many wounded off the battlefield as they could.

In the centre of the torn, red and destroyed meadow Naruto stood, a slowly growing crimson-hued glow encompassing his body. His fingers lengthened into claws. Beneath the mask fangs grew, his eyes narrowed into purple-ruby slits and his whiskers deepened and darkened.

He was the distraction, the main heavy weapon of the Leaf. Behind him Sakura was getting into position to fight Sasuke, the slug beneath her having come out at her summoning. Jiraiya was on his other side, preparing to fight Orochimaru and Kabuto.

Gamabunta shook his head, settling himself lightly on the ground, his long dagger-like weapon already out of it's sheath. "Just like old times, eh?"

"Yeah." Jiraiya agreed, crossing his arms on Gamabunta's head, "Just like old times."

The boss toad rolled his eyes over to the girl on the slug beside him, that was new. "You think she can deal?"

Jiraiya laughed. "If she's anything like Tsunade...yeah. She can deal."

Gamabunta snorted. He looked down on the field to where Naruto was changing. "Too young," he said with a sigh. "They're all just too young."

"Naruto's strong. You know that. The kid'll find some way to do what he needs to do." Jiraiya said, his voice sounding as tired as Gamabunta's own sigh.

Below them Naruto had finished changing. His long blonde hair whipped around in the wind, spiky blonde bangs covering the mask above his eyes. He snarled ferally, the low-pitched growl shearing the nerves of those that heard it.

It was an inhuman sound, made by an inhuman creature.

A large mass of Sound shinobi leapt into action, coming from all directions to attack the blonde creature. Flashes of grey and black blurred around his unmoving figure. From beneath him the earth trembled, before the soil blasted outward from one ninjas' summoning of a pack of dogs? Wolves?

One swipe of a sharp-clawed hand send the animals flying across the field where they landed heavily before disappearing in a puff of smoke back to where they came from.

A deep rumble grew in Naruto's chest as he suddenly surged upwards, his feet lashing out one way, his hands twisting around with the movements of his body to create a miniature tornado in the centre of the oncoming Sound shinobi.

Screaming could be heard as a large rasengan suddenly flashed at the top.

Naruto let himself fall, the wind howling around him as he forced the rasengan into the wind caused by his movements. Those shinobi unlucky enough to be trapped inside the grip of the tornado's unrelenting grip were soon shredded.

The blonde landed with a loud _thud _in a crouch, the bodies or pieces landing messily around him. Naruto stood slowly, his eyes flashing as he was suddenly attacked again by the Sound army.

The Leaf took their chances around Naruto, leaving a wide berth around him, made in part by the bodies littering their path. They took the edges of the battlefield, taking out those who didn't notice them coming.

On the back of the giant scarlet and black salamander, Sasuke waited patiently for Orochimaru to give the signal for him to attack. His red sharingan gaze was icy and hard, all traces of his past buried beneath his thirst for power, power that the snake Sannin had promised.

He watched as Naruto changed, a part of him breathless at the sheer power contained within the blonde's body. Power that he wanted, power that he had jealously tried to keep for himself, but ultimately, power that he knew would never be his.

Sasuke had felt dwarfed by Naruto's seemingly endless strength and growth potential. It had, at those times he was truly honest to himself, scared the hell out of him.

Their shinobi were no match for a demon-augmented human like Naruto, the younger ninja having long since learnt to control the massive chakra reserves of the Kyuubi.

Sasuke's eyes flickered over to Orochimaru, watching the fascination on the snake Sannin's face as he saw his own troops ripped to shreds by the young blonde. There was a half-smile on his lips, and his eyes gleamed with anticipation.

Kabuto was as quietly smug as usual, not questioning his own strength or the strength of his master.

Sasuke looked upwards just in time to catch Orochimaru's signal, sending the beast below him directly towards his target. The main gates.

He could hear the shouts and crashes as Gamabunta met Manda head-on, Orochimaru and Kabuto engaging in a personal battle with Jiraiya. His own position was quickly intercepted by his pink-haired ex-teammate, on the back of one of Tsunade's slugs. He could sense the chakra surrounding her and the slug, his lips pulling taut as he realised that this time she'd summoned the creature herself. She'd grown while he'd been away, and now he didn't know what she was capable of. He'd heard that she'd been trained with Naruto intensively while he'd been away, but this new Sakura who wore black, who dressed the same as any other ANBU, who didn't speak to him, was not a Sakura he was used to.

He saw her lean down into the wind, just barely managing to get the salamander to dodge from the acid which was spat out from the slug's wide jaws. He ordered the creature to twist, slashing with it's razor-sharp tail.

The speed of the slug was belied by it's size, but it was still too slow to get out of the way. The tail ripped through the slug's body, sending white slime flying.

Sasuke ducked and spun round, dodging with neat efficacy the shuriken which whizzed past his head, cutting off a fraction of a strand of hair.

Then Sakura was flying towards him, a handful of kunai in one fist, the other making seals. His eyes automatically cataloged the seals, his mind putting together the combination and possibilities, until he saw that nothing happened. He danced out of the way of her landing, sending his own weapons out to her, a few of his own shuriken and kunai.

Sakura spun around, sending a half-dozen senbon flying past him, he smirked, leaning just out of the way with smooth, economical movements. Sakura didn't move. Sasuke felt something on the back of his neck and jumped out of the way, rolling away and to his feet.

The senbon she'd thrown were circling back to him, seemingly controlled by Sakura's chakra. He'd seen something similar a long time ago.

He activated his complete Sharingan, tracking the needles with his eyes. It was a sudden burst of chakra which caught his attention, just in time to see Sakura's fist land in the centre of the salamander's head, hard enough to puncture the skin and make it bleed.

The salamander screamed, it's body jerking back and forth. It was wounded, but not out of the fight. Sakura jumped back onto the slug as a vicious stream of fire erupted from the salamander's jaws. Two of the shuriken Sasuke threw through the fire landed, scoring wounds across her side and right leg.

Sasuke dodged the senbon again, making a rapid set of seals as he did so, sending the senbon far out of range. A second set of seals were completed just in time to counter Sakura's next attack, a set of bunshin inside a genjutsu.

Sasuke smirked. The bunshin were easy for him to see through, and the genjutsu was no match for his sharingan. His fist struck out and he spun on the spot, hitting back out with his foot. He collided with flesh, and was gratified to hear a muffled scream as his hits landed.

His hand flashed out and grabbed Sakura just as the genjutsu fell. He pulled her towards him and pulled off the mask, staring with poorly concealed amusement into her bitter green eyes.

"Always the worst one out of the three of us, Sakura." Sasuke said mockingly.

Sakura tried to tug her wrist from his hand, sending him a dirty look. "I don't know what I ever saw in you. You're nothing more than a traitor, Uchiha."

"Naruto didn't think so did he?"

If possible, Sakura's eyes became even harder than flint. She snatched her wrist out of his hand so fast the bones snapped. "Don't you _dare_ talk about Naruto, you utter bastard!"

Sasuke clenched his jaw. "I can talk about whomever the fuck I like, _Sakura-chan."_ Sasuke mimicked.

Sakura's free hand flashed into another set of seals, the whorls on Sasuke's eyes twirling as he copied them.

There was a brief flare of Chakra, and suddenly Sasuke could feel a thin stream of chakra leak out from his fingertips. It was useless and very annoying, feeling like an unscratchable itch.

Sakura darted forward, and Sasuke automatically parried with a kunai, feeling a small amount of shock when the kunai sliced in two at her touch. He darted out of reach, feeling the salamander's muscles bunch as it fought the slug, acid splashing on the thick hide and slowly burning away at the skin.

Sasuke waited until the salamander turned suddenly, using the momentum of the bunched muscles to give him a lift as he blurred forward to Sakura, unsheathing the sword slung across his back and slashing forward in a smooth movement.

He hit Sakura across the abdomen, the sword slicing cleanly through her before a puff of smoke left him with a wooden log in her place. He spun around on his heel, the sword sliding quickly out of the wood to meet her sudden black-gloved fist, a light sheen of chakra covering her arm and hand like a shield.

The impact drove him back, and a spark of excitement lit in his belly at the sheer strength in her punch. Her breath came in small, harsh pants, but he was as yet unwinded. Her arm with the broken wrist hung limply at her side, and Sasuke took the opportunity to slash at her unprotected side, scoring a long, shallow wound across her arm and continuing across her stomach.

Sakura fell back, her good arm clutching at the deepest point of the wound on her other arm, the chakra around her fist sealing the wound.

The two ex-teammates stared at each other, waiting for the other to move.

Across the battlefield Jiraiya was dodging a hit from Kabuto, the silver-haired youth covered in long bloody scores from a defensive maneuver by the toad Sannin, the elders' hair having been used as a weapon, every strand of his long hair suddenly as hard as steel and as sharp as a needle.

Orochimaru was breathing heavily, forming seals before blurring to Jiraiya's other side, his sword stabbing forward into Jiraiya's back through the hair.

Jiraiya grunted from the impact before lashing out, his kick hitting the snake Sannin in the face. He leapt back onto Gamabunta's head, his hand moving in seals just in time to ignite the stream of oil which shot out from the boss toad's throat.

Tsunade watched from her vantage point as the bloody battle continued. They were heavily outnumbered, but they were all dedicated and fighting to protect their home. That gave them an edge to use. The battle was pretty much even.

An explosion in the centre of the battlefield suddenly swiveled almost every head capable of moving. Red chakra lashed out in ever-increasing waves from a figure lying prone on the ground, a long tail of hair, stained crimson from the blood lay around his head, his limbs in positions which just _looked_ wrong.

Tsunade found her breath caught in her throat. "Naruto..."

Sakura paused in her attack, leaping back, her eyes showing dread as she caught sight of the person who'd become her best friend. "No. _Naruto!"_

Sasuke couldn't breathe. It was one thing to want to fight the fox-boy, to beat his rival into the ground, but to see him just _lying_ there, broken... _Naruto. I thought you were _stronger. _I need you to be stronger. _I'm _the one who will defeat you!_

Jiraiya couldn't take the time to look, but the dread feeling in his stomach spread. Kabuto met his eyes as Orochimaru glanced over to the demon-child. "Somehow, I expected more from him."

Jiraiya retreated to a safe distance before gazing across the bloodied earth to the unmoving youth he'd taken as an apprentice.

Naruto's legs twitched, before cracking and bending back into place painfully, the bones re-setting into place. His right arm, which looked half torn off started to re-form, the bone setting itself, muscles, sinew and tendons fixing themselves as they watched.

The ground trembled. Naruto pushed himself to his knees. His ANBU mask was cracked in three places, part of the upper right side completely missing, revealing one dark crimson eye with a slit purple pupil.

Naruto staggered to his feet, his arms hanging down, and he swayed unsteadily. Two sound shinobi took the opportunity to leap past the flailing red chakra tails – only to stop mid-air as the chakra literally sliced them apart.

His eyes unseeing, Naruto lifted an arm and slashed out at the enemy which stood nearly twenty meters away, the wave of chakra from his fists incinerating them before they could blink. He took a step forward and fell to his knees, coughing out a mouth-full of blood, the red liquid bubbling to leak out from under the mask.

Someone breathed, and suddenly Naruto's head snapped up and a low growl reverberated across the silent ravaged meadow. He screamed in pure, unadulterated anger, the chakra tails increasing until he covered two-thirds of the open ground.

The Leaf shinobi fell back, leaving the field clear except for Orochimaru's troops.

Black lightning arched through the terrifying chakra surrounding Naruto, flashing upwards in an ever-higher attempt to touch the sky.

Naruto changed again, his mask sliding off to fall, broken, at his knees, his ears moving up and becoming red-tinged triangles of fur, his ANBU uniform ripped just above his tailbone and a bloody pair of yellow-tipped reddish tails flicked outwards, covered in a thin membrane of slime and a white liquid, as though they had just been birthed.

Naruto screamed again, the sound drumming into the very earth and another tail ripped it's way out from behind him.

His features lengthened and elongated until he looked more animal than human, his legs cracking and changing into something half-way between a human and that of a fox. His arms sprouted fur and his hands curled forward slightly. His ANBU uniform lay in shreds around him, a strip of black protecting his modesty, and some scraps of black hanging off his shoulders.

Then he moved.

Before anyone could move, breathe or blink, the Naruto-creature was halfway across the field, his tails snapping outward in deadly attacks of their own accord, a streak of red all that was visible as he sped across the bloodied earth to annihilate his enemies.

Sound shinobi fell like flies, most too slow to grasp their weapons before the devil took them. Claws flashed, the ground shook and the black-lined red chakra captured everything within reach and burnt it in many flashes of black-hued red light.

Within seconds, over three quarters of the Sound army was completely decimated, and a single figure stood on the battlefield.

Orochimaru gave a signal, and the Sound fell back, including his own apprentice, Sasuke.

Tsunade gave her own signal, calling her shinobi back to the wall around her.

"Shit!"

The Godaime turned towards the voice besides her, recognising the dog mask with the lolling red tongue. "Kiba?"

The ANBU nodded.

"What's wrong."

"He's losing control."

Tsunade frowned. She'd seen Naruto change before during an attempted attack during a genin graduation from the academy. The threat to the children and their families enough to send him into a dangerous fury. The only casualties were the attackers from the Sound, but it was a sight none would ever forget. Twice since then he'd had to _change_ his form, although never to this extent.

The repercussions were still being felt.

"Naruto never lost control before." Tsunade argued.

"Yeah. But he's got _three_ tails now." Kiba turned when Akamaru barked from behind him. He nodded in agreement to whatever it was that Akamaru shared with him. "And that sound he's making – not good."

"Shit." Tsunade echoed Kiba's sentiment. "We can't do anything while _they're_ still out there."

"Hokage-sama?"

Tsunade turned. "Yes?"

Hyuuga Hinata stood there, holding her mask in one hand. "I think you need to look, Hokage-sama." Hinata pointed to where the Sound had retreated to, all of them except the two large summons were left on the field. They were making their way to Naruto's position, Jiraiya and Sakura moving as fast as they could to intercept them.

Gamabunta was the closest, and could get to Naruto first, but the slug summon Sakura stood on was still trying to re-form from the smaller slugs she had been fired into.

Two against one odds weren't good, even worst when you counted the humans controlling the summons. Three on one, and two of them could be considered experts at what they did.

Gamabunta landed with a minor quake and a cloud of dust a few meters in front of Naruto. Jiraiya took one look at the vacant expression on Naruto's face and cursed. The kid was obviously lost inside his own mind, probably trying to control the source of the chakra.

The Kyuubi was obviously being difficult.

Flashes of indistinct rage and madness flitted across Naruto's face as he fought the Kyuubi in his mind, forcing his will over the foxes' own.

Jiraiya stood on Gamabunta's head, looking slightly worse for wear. His massive mane of white hair was red-soaked and his face showed tension from the pain he was in. The toad Sannin still stood proud and tall, his entire frame declaring his intent to stop Orochimaru and his subordinates.

He ignored the scream of indistinct sounds from behind him, his attention firmly on his old teammate. Jiraiya wavered slightly when the Uchiha brat closed in on a large salamander summon, trying to keep his eyes on both creatures _and_ the three on them.

Jiraiya felt Gamabunta shift beneath him, and he moved with the muscles on the toad, preparing for the inevitable confrontation. He could see the slug on the other side of the battlefield trying to heal herself as fast as she could so she could join the upcoming fight, but years of experience told him that she and Sakura would never get here in time.

Orochimaru readied his sword and leapt forward, his body stretching at an impossibly fast speed. Kabuto found his way to the other side, splitting Jiraiya's concentration.

Jiraiya jumped back and dodged Orochimaru's hit, twisting and hitting forward in a counter to one of Kabuto's strikes.

Blood dotted the head of the toad as they fought, and Gamabunta swiped with his bulbous tongue at Manda, slashing with his dagger at the other creature, dodging the enormous fangs on the snake as he moved.

On the ground the chakra was receding, being compacted into a bright corona around Naruto's body.

Sasuke jumped down, landing in a crouch before Naruto's seemingly oblivious form. He stood slowly, long, slender limbs gracefully straightening. He stared at the blonde before him, a frown marring his brow.

"Oi. Naruto."

Naruto still didn't move, much less show any sign that he'd heard Sasuke.

Sasuke's frown deepened. He looked upwards to the fight between the two Sannin and Kabuto. All three of them were engrossed in the fight.

"Sa-sa...su..."

Sasuke crouched down in front of Naruto. "Naruto?" His hand readied to set the seals he'd use if Naruto was bluffing, his other hand reaching behind him to ready the end of the razor wire he was so fond of.

Naruto lifted his head a fraction, just enough so Sasuke could see the ruby eyes gaze at the earth. "Why...? Why Sasuke? You...betrayed...me."

"I..." What _could_ he say? Sasuke knew he _had_ betrayed his once best friend. What could he say? 'Sorry, but power was...is...more important to me than _you_.'

Naruto's eyes flickered to an almost-blue before reverting back again. "You...you..." his voice trembled between his normal tone and an animalistic growl, "_betrayed_ me. You..."

Sasuke snapped his wrist outwards on Naruto's last word, wrapping the wire around Naruto's chest, pinning his arms to his body. "Sorry Naruto. But this needs to be done." Sasuke said flatly. He tugged on the end of the wire, yanking Naruto down to fall on his chest before Sasuke, who stood again slowly.

His hands quickly formed the seals Orochimaru had drummed into him, each of his five fingers on his right hand lighting up with an eerie blue-green glow. He kicked Naruto over, ignoring the groan of pain and the harsh panting breaths from the still exhausted and only half-aware blonde, thrusting his hand down into Naruto's stomach over his seal.

The seals burnt into Naruto's bare flesh, and the younger of them screamed, his senses being torn forcefully back to the present. Self-awareness returned to Naruto and he coughed out another mouthful of blood.

The seal of the Kyuubi flashed red, before a set of symbols in black crept outwards from Sasuke's fingers, turning the seal black and flat.

"Sas...uke?"

Sasuke looked into Naruto's eyes, looking away at the forming seal and away from the hurt and confusion in Naruto's eyes.

"I'm just doing what needs to be done, Naruto." Sasuke whispered, waiting until the seal finished forming, the black tendrils circling the Kyuubi's seal and curling delicately around the blonde's sides in a parody of a chain belt.

"What...what did you...do?"

"I'm sorry Naruto. But you won't be around for much longer." Sasuke said quietly, before leaping upwards and back to the salamander behind him.

Orochimaru had known that at some point during the battle, Sasuke would come face to face with Naruto. It was, in a way, fated. They were known to be rivals. Naruto had gone after Sasuke three times and failed to bring his friend back, once at fourteen, once at fifteen and once at sixteen.

Now they were both seventeen, and their bridges had been burnt.

But Naruto kept trying to grow their friendship out of the ashes.

So the snake Sannin had prepared Sasuke for their inevitable confrontation. He'd designed a set of seals which would cause Naruto's body to burn itself out trying to maintain the original Kyuubi seal. If it worked, Naruto would die in a blaze of chakra.

If it failed, well...then he'd just try something else.

The five points of the seal Sasuke used would disrupt the chakra pathways around the seal, channeling the chakra used to maintain it into the places connected to the five-point seal he'd just forced onto Naruto's stomach.

The eight-point seal the Yondaime had created was never intended to be anything more than a prison for the kyuubi, but it had taken a lot of damage over the years. First from Orochimaru's five-point seal when he was twelve, then with Jiraiya's own counter-seal a short while later.

Now Sasuke's seal would do the rest of the damage and cause each weakness of the eight-point seal to overload and break down, flooding Naruto's body with the excess chakra. It was, if compared to the methods used by the Hyuuga, crude and unrefined. It lacked skill and any need for delicacy or precision.

Which was why Sasuke could do it. With a little bit of help from his sharingan.

Naruto's body arched upwards, his back bending at an impossible angle, blood spurting from his mouth and running out of his nose and ears. He would probably have screamed if his throat hadn't convulsed shut.

Sasuke stood on his salamander, watching dispassionately as Naruto died. His attention was half on Naruto, half on the vicious and brutal fight between the two Legendary Sannin and Kabuto.

The changes brought on from the battle slowly started to reverse.

Naruto's eyes were the first to change, turning back to their cornflower blue, his fangs shortened into a more reasonable length, although they would never be as human as they once were. The fur disappeared back into bronzed human skin and his limbs regained their natural form. His fingers would never be as short as they once were, with his new small claw-like nails, but overall he now resembled the ninja Sasuke once knew.

Sasuke stared as Naruto slowly regained his senses, his bright blue eyes dark with pain and regret. Sasuke knew that with Naruto's hyper-awareness of his own body, he could probably tell that he was dying, his body basically turning in on itself.

Naruto pushed himself back upwards to his knees, the razor wire slicing deeply into the bare skin of his arms and upper body from the effort. He forced himself to stagger upwards on shaky legs, spitting the blood from his mouth before flashing a red-toothed smile at Sasuke.

"I thought...you would be...the one...to kill...me." Naruto groaned, the first flickerings of the chakra overload beginning to tell on his body.

Above him, Gamabunta and Manda had separated, their summoners moving back to a safe distance. Jiraiya knew something was wrong, his skin whitening when he saw the black tattoo-esque markings around Naruto's abdomen.

"Fuck! Naruto!"

Naruto turned his head, taking a step forward before stumbling and landing heavily on his knees. "Ne, ero-sennin? You should move back. I don't think I'm gonna...last much...longer." Naruto's voice slowly got fainter.

Jiraiya jumped down off Gamabunta's head, the creature disappearing in a puff of white smoke. He managed to cover half the distance between them, passing Sasuke and his summon, before the air around them suddenly stilled, every tiny scrap of oxygen suddenly being sucked forward towards Naruto so fast it left a partial vacuum behind and around him.

Naruto's body started to glow blue...then red...then violet as the two chakra sources inside him merged and fought between themselves.

Then everything exploded.

Naruto screamed, a sudden wind whipped his hair up and out of it's ties, the bloody long blonde strands slashing at the air around Naruto's head. The razor wire around his upper body split and shredded into tiny pieces.

Sasuke watched as his once best friend died. He couldn't turn away, not now, not when he was directly responsible. It was mesmerising in it's own way. Naruto had always seemed indestructible from outside sources. He always healed, always fought, always shouted in defiance to his attackers, to his foes, to his obstacles.

Sasuke was destroying him.

So why did this victory seem so empty?

Jiraiya stared at the sorrow in Naruto's eyes, unable to force his body to move through the overwhelming pressure bearing down on him.

Naruto threw his head back, his screams almost undistinguishable from the howling of the chakra-reinforced wind surrounding him.

The air pulsed once...then twice, small embers of glowing light suddenly expelling themselves from Naruto's body.

The world turned red. The sky itself turning black.

Then the power erupted, blinding all who stood on the battlefield. The world turned white for miles, a huge shockwave enveloping the earth. The air split and threw those standing down without care, the trees closest uprooted and blasted backwards.

When everything settled, and those who could see again looked...Naruto was gone.

Only a massive crater remained.

* * *

**Tbc...**

* * *

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

Title: **Taboo**

Fandom: Naruto

Author: Shi-koi

Genre: Romance, angst, action.

Summary: (ItaNaru) When Naruto ends up in another world very similar to his own, where the Yondaime is alive and the Uchiha clan is thriving, he finds out that sometimes, the last things we ever want to see are the truths we are faced with. Previous SasuNaruSasu mentioned.

* * *

**Chapter One**

* * *

_AU-verse_

The four-man ANBU squad flitted silently through the trees, leaping with uncanny precision from one branch to another. They left no tracks and made no sounds.

Their target was a large tree-lined meadow just beyond the wall that lined their city. The reason? A massive chakra explosion had been felt not a half-hour earlier, just before their noon break. The shockwave of energy had stunned everyone, even the untrained villagers unused to sensing chakra.

Since it originated so close to Konoha's bordering city wall the Yondaime had given orders for then to gather data about what had happened and to assess the danger level.

The captain stopped, motioning for the three men flanking him to spread out from the other sides before darting into the grassy field, his black uniform and white body armor clearly visible in the green grasses. He stopped a few feet away, red sharingan eyes whirling behind his ANBU mask, searching for traces of genjutsu or ninjutsu.

He found none.

Stepping forward, the ANBU captain stooped down before the battered body lying prone on the ground. The figure was bloodstained and covered in cuts and bruises. Long blonde hair, which he could see was matted red with even more blood, covered it's top half.

Uchiha Itachi leant forward, lifting a section of the hair away and checking for a pulse. There was one, but it was erratic and faint. He rolled the body over gently, mindful of the wounds. One hand signaled for the others on his team.

"Get a medic-nin," Itachi ordered, staring at the blonde. "This one's going no-where."

The other ANBU nodded, disappearing in a swirl of air and leaves.

Itachi turned back to the unconscious male below him. There was something...familiar, about him. Something he couldn't quite place.

* * *

Naruto hurt. That was the only thing on his mind when he started to come to. He could feel someone poking at his right arm, sending small sparks of pain thrumming through it all the way up to his shoulder. Naruto tried to swat her away. It had to be a her, since only Tsunade-baa-chan, Sakura-chan or Hinata-chan would ever dare treat the 'Kyuubi vessel'.

After the battle, chances were that it was Tsunade-baa-chan herself, trying to reassure herself that her necklace hadn't passed on its curse and killed Naruto.

The hand was back. Naruto batted it away groggily. "'M fine, baa-chan. Go 'way. 'M not dead yet."

At that, Naruto fell back asleep, the effort of moving and talking too much for him.

* * *

"Are there any indications of his village?"

Uchiha Itachi took off his mask before shaking his head. The Yondaime stood in front of the desk before him, his bright blue eyes drawn with worry. "No. The only items retrieved from him were a few scraps of generic type cloth, available in any village, and one necklace."

The Yondaime looked up at that. "Necklace? Any names, initials or symbols on it?"

Itachi shook his head. "No. But it seems to be made out of a special ore. It's valuable enough to buy most of the Fire Country, if not Konoha outright. If he wanted, this guy could easily own just about anything he wanted."

"Could his wounds have come from an attack for his belongings?"

"There were no tracks around him, and the way he was lying...unless he knew how to teleport, which is a Jounin level skill..."

"Makes it unlikely that someone would have been able to reduce him to this state if they were mere thieves. So he could be a neighbouring villages' shinobi then?" The Yondaime asked, thinking heavily. "He could have been protecting the necklace for his employer/s. Or he could have been tasked with transporting it."

Itachi shrugged. "It could be a trap."

"Oh...?"

"It's a mystery. An unidentified male shows up out of nowhere with a chakra explosion large enough to rival that of the Legendary Sannin themselves with nothing on him but a necklace of almost unimaginable worth. He is half dead yet there are no signs of a struggle around him." Itachi frowned. "I don't like it."

"Well, I wouldn't want him to feel threatened when he wakes up, but I won't have this village put at risk. I'm going to assign you to him. Treat it as an 'A' class mission, and keep a close watch on him. You're young, so he probably won't be expecting too much from you. Maybe a new chuunin at most."

"Agreed."

The Yondaime stopped by the large window looking out over Konoha. "Try and find out everything you can about him. I'll put out feelers in the other villages about a man matching his description. See if the hospital has anything new to report." The Yondaime paused then, slanting an amused look at his erstwhile apprentice. "Oh, and Itachi..."

Itachi gave him a curt nod. "Yes."

"Keep a close eye on this one. I don't know why, but something's giving me chills."

"Acknowledged." Itachi stood, replacing his mask. A moment later he was gone.

The Yondaime stood by the window for a while longer, a small smile tugging at his lips. It was about time Itachi made a new friend.

* * *

A nurse stopped the masked ANBU captain when he neared the room with the blonde.

"It's odd," she was saying, "but when we cleaned him up we found some strange markings on him. There are a set of three scars on each of his cheeks and what looks like a seal on his stomach."

"A seal?" Itachi fought not to look surprised, even though his face was covered.

The nurse nodded urgently, biting her lip in worry. "It's bad, whatever it is. The seal, it's massive. It's not very clear, in fact, until we washed off the blood we didn't even notice it. It reaches all the way around his waist, but the majority of it circles his navel. That part, that part is _massive._"

"So whatever it's holding has to be strong."

The nurse made a sound of agreement. "We've had our resident specialist look at it. He says it's a work of art, and that there may be more than one seal overlapping each other." She paused, looking nervously from side to side, lowering her voice. "The seal is complicated. Too complicated. Hasegawa-sensei said that the only ones truly capable of such seals are Yondaime-sama or his master, Jiraiya-sama."

Itachi closed his eyes for a moment. "If this man is someone Jiraiya-sama has sealed, he may be dangerous." He glanced at the nurse, giving her a sharp nod of approval. "I'll sit with him. You organise a report for me to take up to Hokage-sama about your findings."

The nurse gave a sigh of relief at the thought of having a skilled shinobi sitting in with the unknown patient. "Thank you, ANBU-san." She scurried away, leaving Itachi standing in front of the private hospital room.

Itachi waited a moment before opening the door and glancing warily around the room. The blonde was still asleep, motionless on the bed. A quick once-over with his sharingan ensured that no traps lay in wait and so Itachi stepped inside, closing the door behind him with a soft _click_.

The black-haired shinobi stopped at the edge of the bed, staring down at the figure lying there, an oxygen mask on his face and an IV in his right arm. He looked...helpless. Instinct told Itachi that that helplessness was not reality, that there was something inherently strong about this youth.

Itachi always listened to his instincts.

Now that the blood had been washed off and most of the bruises and cuts were gone, Itachi could see the others' face clearly. He was a lot younger that Itachi had thought. He looked like he wasn't even a year or two older than Itachi's own sixteen. His face was still slightly round with youth, although the promise of maturity was beginning to show. His long blonde hair with somewhat messy short bangs had been braided and lay on the bed next to him, the shade of yellow-blonde looking remarkably similar to another blondes' hair.

The other was neither tall, nor short, and probably didn't weigh as much as he should for his size, but to Itachi's experienced eyes the muscles on the blonde were a dead giveaway to his line of work. Only a ninja would have such a defined musculature. He had a slender, lithe build, good for fast maneuvers and rapid reactions. Being large and strong was all very good and well, but speed was better than strength when it came to saving your own life.

Stepping back, Itachi drew out a handful of paper seals, placing them around the room before activating them and hiding them within a minor genjutsu. It was unobtrusive and would go unnoticed for the most part. They were designed to warn Itachi of any approach towards his position, or in this case, the room his was currently in. He wasn't going to take any chances.

At his command, should the stranger prove to be a foe, Itachi could form a seal to make them disappear, which would send a signal to another seal hidden in the Yondaime's office, warning him of the danger. Itachi knew that the Yondaime would know the other part of the seal was there, since he'd been the one to teach Itachi this method, but better safe than sorry.

Itachi moved a chair next to the bed and sat down. The red of his sharingan eyes unwavering despite the wait the knew he'd probably have.

The wait wasn't as bad as he thought it might have been. Less than two hours of waiting – which was nothing to an experienced shinobi, the figure on the bed moved, coughing lightly.

Itachi leant forward, tugging off the oxygen mask. A pair of the clearest blue eyes he ever seen on anyone other than his mentor opened slowly, before Itachi suddenly found himself flying backwards, impacting heavily on the wall opposite the bed.

_Shit! I never even saw him move. That's impossible. No-one is faster than the sharingan! _Itachi leapt up in a fraction of a second, exploding the seals. He saw the blonde rip the door open and run, catching only a glimpse of the hospital clothes he was wearing before he disappeared around a corner.

Itachi gave chase, dodging some _very_ surprised hospital staff, some of which had obviously been knocked out of the way.

The blonde came to the end of a corridor, his body visibly tensed and settled in a wary half-crouch. His eyes seemed glazed.

Itachi paused. If the blonde was attacked, he could very well believe himself in enemy territory. The young shinobi stood still and carefully removed his mask, tying it to his belt, before holding out one hand as one would to a frightened animal.

The blonde looked at his hand then back up at his eyes, confusion marring his features.

"Look," Itachi said softly, avoiding loud sounds, "I know you must be confused right now. But we aren't going to hurt you."

The blonde took another step back, until his back hit the wall behind him. He shook his head lightly, pressing one palm against the side of his head as though he were in pain.

"Sa..sasuke?"

Itachi was taken aback. How the _hell_ did this guy know his younger brother? His brother was the only one he knew in Konoha with that name.

The blonde shook his head again, a cry of pain tumbling from his lips. "Why...? You...betrayed me. You...hurt me. Sasuke?"

Itachi took the chance to step forward. "How do you know that name?"

The blondes' head shot up, blue eyes suddenly piercing and hard. They cleared slowly and coherency returned. His face paled and the blonde looked Itachi up and down intently. "You...you're not...!"

Itachi took another step forward and was prepared this time when the other youth tried to flee. Another squad of mixed Chuunin and Jounin had arrived just in time to see Itachi corner the blonde. The fight was swift and sharp. The blonde was obviously still tired and wounded.

It took less than a minute for Itachi to subdue the blonde on the floor, quickly casting a ninjutsu directly onto him to prevent him from using his arms and legs to escape.

* * *

Waking up in a strange place was not high on his list of things he liked to do. Waking up to find the man who'd just tried to kill him staring at him intently was most definitely _not_ on his list, at all.

Naruto reacted before he could even think, and he acted with all the instincts of the animal he possessed inside. He lashed out and ran, barely managing to dodge the people he vaguely recognised as hospital staff as he fled down the corridor.

Sasuke was still after him, although one part of him wondered why Sasuke hadn't killed him already...unless, maybe Sasuke wanted something else from him instead. The Kyuubi _was_ a hot commodity as far as the Akatsuki were concerned, and he knew Sasuke wouldn't want anyone else to have the Kyuubi's power.

If only he knew what that damn seal _did!_

Naruto tried to use his chakra to run, a horrible feeling of dread encompassing him when he realised that although he could _feel_ his chakra, he couldn't _use_ it.

The corridor ended abruptly, and Naruto skidded to a halt, spinning around in a half-crouch. His pursuer appeared a moment later, red sharingan eyes boring into him, burning at him, promising even more pain and betrayal.

Naruto could barely breathe. Images flashed before his eyes of when he was a genin, fighting with Sasuke as a team.

Their mission to the Wave Country. Realising what Sasuke was, that he _was_ a friend. Their fight at the Hidden Falls. Working together for one glorious instant.

Other images streamed past, and with each one Sasuke's eyes became darker, bloodier, colder. Their humanity slowly leeched out, until, finally, there was nothing left but the shell of the man he should have become. Orochimaru's puppet, and eventually, someone who would become Orochimaru's body.

The man spoke slowly though, with a voice that was somehow smoother, gentler than Sasuke's darkly mocking tones.

Memories slowed, then trickled to a halt, the pain they caused finally draining away. Naruto blinked, shaking his head and within moments some semblance of normality returned, and with it the ability to rationalise and think.

Naruto quickly scanned the man before him, his eyes widening when he realised that he _hadn't_ been running from Sasuke.

But the Uchiha clan had been erased, annihilated, completely and utterly destroyed except for two survivors. The killer and Sasuke.

So who the _hell_ was this guy?

His mind worked furiously, analysing all the possibilities. Then Kakashi came to mind. It _was _possible for a person's eyes to be transplanted from the donor, whether willing or not, and the recipient would gain all the advantages, with few drawbacks. If they were strong enough to control them.

Naruto couldn't think of anyone other than the Akatsuki who would be willing to do such a thing. How much time had passed while he'd been in that bed?

But then...did this mean that Sasuke was dead?

Or could his brother have been betrayed by the other eight members and had his eyes stripped from him? No. That couldn't be it. Even Orochimaru was afraid of Uchiha Itachi. If Orochimaru was almost undefeatable, Itachi truly was unbeatable.

In any case, standing around here was _not_ going to be an option; but without knowing how to get his chakra working again, Naruto knew he'd be at a severe disadvantage.

His eyes flickered to the side, and he made a run for it, knowing as soon as he moved that he was caught. Naruto didn't care, there was no way he was going down without a fight. He was kicked, punched, slammed against a wall then hit to the floor, rolled over with his hands pinned behind his back in the space of a double breath. He heard a ninjutsu cast on him just as he lost all control over his arms and legs.

_Shit! Shitshitshit! _Naruto drew in deep gasping breaths, trying in vain to dislodge the other male sitting on his back using only his shoulders and upper body strength. His hair slid down in front of his eyes, blocking his vision, and Naruto finally conceded defeat, frowning heavily and cursing under his breath.

The man on his back leant in low, his mouth hovering close enough to Naruto's ear for Naruto to feel the warmth of his breath. "That's some mouth." The other male said in amusement.

Naruto fumed. "Bastard. Get the fucking hell off me!"

The other Sasuke-lookalike snorted before standing, and a few moments later two of the reinforcements looped their arms around his and hauled Naruto upright, his arms and legs still hanging uselessly.

"Where do you want him?" Naruto turned his head up and glared at the tall chuunin on his right.

* * *

Uchiha Itachi was actually enjoying himself, although he allowed no emotions to show on his face. The blonde was a lot shorter in reality standing than he looked when he was lying down, but the pure power in his hits when he defended himself had a hell of a lot of potential behind them.

It was odd that the blonde hadn't used his chakra, but it wasn't completely unheard of for some injuries to cause the body to pump it's entire supply of chakra into it's healing.

Still, with the way he was being held, and the lack of height, combined with the glare directed at one of the chuunin holding him made the blonde appear to be nothing much more than a petulant kid who'd just been told off.

Itachi stood to one side and motioned back down the corridor before answering the chuunin. "We'll put him back in his room. We'll strap him down if we have to, but he _is_ wounded, so I don't want us to be responsible for any more of his injuries."

The blonde turned that vivid blue glare of his back on him when he suggested that, and Itachi allowed a small smirk to show on his face. The blonde's eyes narrowed into slits and he actually_growled._

The two chuunin had no problems relocating the blonde back to his bed under Itachi's watchful eyes, while the others left, returning back to their posts or wherever it was they were supposed to be now that the crisis had passed.

The two Chuunin left in the room went to stand guard by the door. Itachi righted his chair and sat down beside the bed, staring with his sharingan-red eyes at it's unwilling occupant.

"You know," he said after a few moments, "that jutsu doesn't prevent you from speaking. I only immobilised your arms and legs."

The blonde stared at him for a moment, his eyes firmly assessing before he snorted and purposefully turned his head away.

The wait stretched out for almost twenty minutes before the blonde turned his head back.

"Where am I?"

Itachi frowned. "You don't know?"

The blonde made a noise of frustration. "Of course I don't fucking know! Do you think I'd've asked if I did?"

Itachi just shrugged at him. "You're in Konohagakure no Sato. Currently in a hospital, as you can see." He tucked one hand under his chin. "Did you _want _to be here?"

The reply was so faint Itachi missed it. He sighed instead. "What do you call yourself?"

That seemed to throw the blonde. "I don't believe this is Konoha. How the hell can you not know who I am. If this really_were _Konoha you'd know me."

There was some definite disgust, and maybe a bit of self-contempt in that statement, and Itachi couldn't understand why. Still...for this guy to believe himself known in the Leaf was very interesting.

"Oh? I've never seen you around before." Itachi said calmly.

The blonde snorted. "All you'd have to do is drag someone in from the street, let them take a look at these," he looked down at his cheeks and Itachi found his gaze wandering to the odd three slash marks on each cheek, "and they'd know who I am instantly."

Itachi resisted the urge to shake his head. It wasn't a move that was very becoming to a shinobi of his rank. "Look. I've lived here all my life and I know a good deal of the people that live here, but I've never seen anyone that looks like you other than our current Hokage, Yondaime-sama, and --"

The look of total shock on the blonde's face made him pause.

"Wh...what did you...say?"

Itachi slowly recounted his sentence.

"The..._Yon..._daime? Not _Godaime?"_

"Of course not the Godaime! Why? Is the Yondaime in danger?" Itachi pushed down the sudden spasm of fear that erupted in his insides. He gripped the chair so hard his hands turned white. "So help me, if you know _anything..."_ Itachi trailed off at the unseeing look on the blonde's face. He stopped, forcibly calming himself down and taking a few deep breaths.

"How...? But...?" The blonde suddenly started shaking, thrashing with all of his strength against his bonds. It didn't seem to matter that he couldn't use his extremities, he just kept on throwing himself from side to side. "Let me _go!_This is wrong! I don't belong here! Dammit! Let me go!" The blonde finally stopped, a trickle of tears slowly sliding down his face. His blue eyes were screwed tightly shut and his lips were pulled taut, although with his sharp eyes, Itachi could see the tremble in his jaw.

His voice was quieter after a moment, and Itachi could hear the pain in his voice. "Please. _Please._ You don't know...I shouldn't be here. This is wrong. _This is wrong."_

"Who are you?" Itachi asked then, and the blonde flinched at his tone.

There was another long silence before he was given an answer. "My name is Naruto."

"Where are you from, Naruto?"

The blonde – Naruto, Itachi knew now, shook his head. "I can't tell you. I can't tell any of you."

"You know if you don't tell us, we'll assume you're an enemy. Are you a ninja?" Itachi asked him quietly.

Naruto shook his head again. "I told you. I can't tell you."

Itachi looked at him carefully. "If you don't answer me, I'll have to assume you are a threat to us. If I do, that _will_ mean handing you over to our interrogation specialist, who is someone you do _not_ want to meet."

Naruto gave him a mirthless smile. "Let me guess, Morino Ibiki, your head Torturer and Interrogator. I'd assume him since my reaction to the current Hokage means that I could be a high level threat."

Itachi clenched his jaw. Yes Morino Ibiki was an interrogator, but he was also the best, and the most secret one to anyone below Jounin level. Regular people and even most of the chuunin and lower ranked shinobi didn't know who was in charge of that unit. That this person did was a definite indication of something that needed swift investigation.

Itachi came to a decision and stood, motioning to one of the chuunin. "Watch him carefully," he said, trying to ignore the gnaw of worry in his stomach, "I'll try and be back soon." The chuunin nodded in understanding. Itachi made a quick seal and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto stared at the ceiling. Things just didn't make sense. How could he go from a battlefield to...this. This wasn't Konoha. If it were, Naruto would have been kicked out of the hospital by now, and most likely refused treatment. If he'd been suspected of conspiring against the Leaf he'd probably already be under lock and key awaiting torture.

Then there was the whole Kyuubi issue. There were very few people who _didn't _know who he was, and nearly all of them were his age or younger. Even then, they could easily recognise him as someone their parents had told them to stay away from because of his whisker marks.

The older people, which included the current hospital staff, would have known who he was as soon as they examined him. Hell, the seal on his stomach was a dead giveaway, yet no-one had called him a monster, freak, disgrace, or any other insult which seemed to be thrown at him daily, regardless of his sacrifices for his home village.

Just what the _hell_ did Sasuke do to him? Naruto knew it was some sort of seal, but he'd never heard of a seal which did this, whatever _this_ was. Hell, for all he knew, he could be trapped inside some sort of weird genjutsu, and without his chakra he'd never cancel it. If it wasn't, then he was in deeper trouble than he thought.

Could he have been thrown back in time? Maybe _before_ the Kyuubi attacked? Or was he living out a dream? It didn't have to be a good dream, but that was more likely than time-travel. Not to mention it would be pretty dumb of Orochimaru to send someone as powerful as Naruto currently was against his past self...unless...something else had happened.

Was he even in his own world at all any more?

* * *

Itachi appeared in a flash of smoke in the office of the Hokage, startling it's single occupant.

"Itachi?" The Yondaime stood and crossed to the other side of the desk, placing his hands on Itachi's shoulders, his eyes showing worry at the pallor of his students' skin.

"We're going to need Ibiki-san."

"That bad?"

Itachi nodded. "The man we found, his name is Naruto. He didn't give any family name or clan affiliation. He's definitely had training. I don't know if he _is_ a shinobi, or what village he hails from...but he _is_ dangerous."

The Yondaime sighed, moving to stand before the window. "I see. What makes you think we need Ibiki's skills?"

"Something he said. He was shocked when I mentioned you. He seemed to think Konoha had a _**Go**_daime."

The Yondaime turned around slightly, just enough for Itachi to see the blue of his eyes, a blue that was identical to the stranger, Naruto. It unsettled him.

"Do you think he knows of some plan to remove me? Maybe have me killed?" The Yondaime shook his head, sunshine yellow spikes waving slightly at the movement. "Itachi. I won't be killed that easily. Okay? I'm not going to leave you behind to the mercy of your family. I told you before. I'm. Not. Going. To. Die."

Itachi looked away, clenching his fists. He unstrapped his mask from the back of his belt and slipped it on. "I don't care." He went to make a hand seal when another hand, tanned a golden bronze from the sun, stopped him, covering and preventing him from finishing the seal.

"Itachi." Yondaime's voice was soft. "I know you care. I've taken care of you for five years and you're like a son to me. I found you. I saved you. I did everything I could to raise you into the man you _are_ becoming; and I have _never_ gone back on my word."

"Minato-sensei..." Itachi began, his face tilted down and his voice dispirited, "...go and see him for yourself. After Ibiki-san talks to him. You're strong sensei, but it only takes one mistake, just one, and your word won't be able to do a damn thing about it."

The Yondaime sighed, looking tired, his blue eyes sad. "Sometimes I hate them for what they did to you. My own village, my own people, and I almost overlooked their actions. Sometimes I wonder how you would have turned out if you'd had to spend so much as a month longer in the care of your..._loving..._family." The Yondaime paused there, recognising from the stiff way that he held himself that Itachi was trying to put the matter from his mind. He gave up for the moment, changing the subject. "Go tell Ibiki I need to speak to him, then continue your watch at the hospital."

Itachi nodded once, finishing the hand seal and disappearing in the familiar puff of smoke.

The Yondaime watched the empty space for a minute before returning to his desk, although his mind was far away, returned to to day he'd first met Itachi on a personal level instead as one of the many faceless shinobi of Konohagakure.

Uchiha Itachi had been talked about all his life, and as the Yondaime, Minato knew Itachi's stats and mission logs almost as well as the back of his hand. He'd met the boy briefly when he'd graduated, and when he'd taken the Chuunin exam and passed with flying colours...but it wasn't until Itachi applied for the Jounin examination at the tender age of 11 that Minato truly met the Uchiha prodigy.

What he found was a boy who had little regard for his own life, and was fast becoming jaded with the world, someone who questioned his purpose, his life, his very being.

People feared him, feared his abilities, his sharingan and his family background. He had no friends and from what Minato managed to glean, even his family made him feel as though he were no more important than any other ninja tool in the arsenal of weapons owned by the Uchiha clan.

His one redeeming feature, his one slight tenuous link to his humanity was his little six year old brother, but even that link strained him. He saw himself in his brother and wanted – would do anything, to preserve what he saw as the last of his innocence, and the mirror of his own reflection by keeping his brother pure and unharmed.

Yet the harder he tried, the worst his father, the Patriarch of the Uchiha clan treated them both.

There were some things a man just _didn't _interfere with. Hokage or not. The seals of the Hyuuga family and the politics of the Uchiha clan were among them.

Until Minato saw the cracks in the mask the 11 year old Uchiha Itachi wore every day.

It didn't take long for Minato to get Itachi to open up, after all, the personal attention of the Hokage was something to be encouraged, and Itachi was all but ordered by his father to go with the Yondaime and cultivate a friendship with the man through any means necessary.

That was the beginning of the friendship they shared, and the only thing preventing Itachi from becoming Minato's true son was their last names and their family blood. Outwardly, Itachi became the Yondaime's apprentice and student; personally they had both forged themselves into their own little family. One that both of them would do anything to protect.

The door to the Hokage's office opened and one of the guards stood there. "Sir, Morino-san is here as requested."

The Yondaime nodded. "Thank you, show him in please."

Morino Ibiki was twenty-six years old, and while he did many things by-the-book, he had a flair for working within those guidelines which struck fear in many people. He wore typical Jounin gear, and entered the office straight-backed and with his shoulders squared. "Sir," he said sharply, "you asked to see me?"

"Yes," Minato said, motioning to a seat in front of his desk. He waited until the other man sat down before continuing. "There is an...issue, I need your skills with..."

* * *

Naruto closed his eyes and forced himself to begin thinking properly like the ANBU he was. While he was unable to control his body from the neck down, he could still move his head, which meant that he wasn't completely helpless, unfortunately, his inability to access his chakra was his main disability.

Naruto knew that he had three options. The first option was to simply do nothing and see what happened. The second was to find out if he was in a coma or a genjutsu by forcing pain upon himself, which he could do by biting himself, even though he highly doubted that if this was a high level genjutsu technique like the ones employed by the Kurama clan that a small thing like pain would break it. The third was to activate one of his latent seals, much like Tsunade-baa-chan's Genesis seal.

The latent seals he had in strategic places could be activated mentally, and each contained their own chakra source, carefully built up over long periods of time. Each one was for a specific jutsu and could only be used once before needing to be reapplied, which took time and chakra. The good part about these one-use seals though, was that they were invisible until accessed, and since the chakra in them was latent, they could not be found even by a person using doujutsu, as the seals and their chakra simply seemed to blend into the body's natural chakra pathways.

The bad part though was that almost every one would physically damage him or even kill him since he was unable to move out of the area of impact or effect, and the other remaining ones were specifically for healing or boosting Naruto's own impressive speed, stamina and strength, which were nigh on useless in his current situation.

So, Naruto could employ one of his less destructive techniques and hope he didn't kill himself from the effect, or he could simply wait and see what would happen.

It was as he was contemplating this that the sound of leaves on the wind caught his ears, and Naruto opened his eyes to see a swirl of leaves settle softly on the floor, leaving a grim-faced man standing in the centre of the room.

Naruto swallowed a groan and forced his face into impassivity. Morino Ibiki. Great. Granted it was a much younger Morino Ibiki, one without his head-gear and with virtually none of his famous scars...but still...

When Ibiki wrapped a sheet around Naruto's body and threw him over his shoulder, Naruto made up his mind there and then. If Ibiki tried anything that threatened his secrets and health, in that order, Naruto would use everything he had to to get away from these people.

There was no way in hell he was going to betray his precious people, and Naruto had no idea what he was really up against.

* * *

The room Ibiki took them to was underneath the ANBU tower. It was plain, stark and unfriendly. The walls and floors were stone, there were no windows and the lights were a harsh white fluorescent glare beaming down at them.

Ibiki ignored the two masked and robed ANBU standing in the shadowed areas of the room, and deposited the blonde from his shoulder onto the single fixed chair in the room, a metallic parody of a dentists chair, complete with thick leather straps. The sheet was tugged off before Naruto was strapped down, the leather bands on his arms pulled especially tight over the hospital-issue top and pants.

Bringing over a short stool, Ibiki sat down facing Naruto, whose on chair was set at an angle so he was almost sitting, but with his legs straight out in front of him.

When Ibiki focused his icy stare upon him, Naruto sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, staring up at an unlit point on the ceiling when he re-opened them.

"I hear you've already heard of me," Ibiki started blandly.

"Yeah, so?" Naruto forced his voice to show only disinterest.

Ibiki shrugged, his muscles visibly tense to Naruto's keen eyes. "Just making small talk before we begin."

Naruto snorted in vague amusement. "What, you've got a list or something?" Naruto asked with a grin.

"Or something," Ibiki agreed.

"Well," Naruto said, his grin still firmly on his face, "ask away then."

Ibiki frowned slightly. "And you'll answer them?"

"I'd shrug about now, but seeing as I can't seem to move my body from the neck down, I'll say this instead. Ask about something that won't hurt me to answer...and we'll see, ask me something that could hurt me, and by 'me' I mean me and my precious people, and my answer will be 'no fricking way', 'kay?" Naruto said, his grin widening into a large smile that, considering how bright it was, seemed to be quite threatening.

"Oh? Any particular reason why? You already seem to know about Konoha, our Hokage and even the names of some of our population." Ibiki stated flatly.

"Yeah, so? For all I know I could be inside some freaky genjutsu that snake-bastard made, or I could be in an enemy base drugged the hell outta my mind, so as I said, ask me stuff that I can answer and I might, ask me stuff that those Oto-nin are after and I'm not gonna answer." Naruto snapped his mouth shut when he realised that he was starting to lose it, his deteriorating language a stark indication of how afraid he was, even if it was well hidden.

He'd never been that good at hiding things, but Naruto had still undergone the training, and one of the first things they'd been taught, besides the 'once you speak, it only gets harder to stay quiet' rule, which couldn't really apply to him, since he couldn't stop talking at the best of times meant that he'd have to subscribe to the other rule he'd been taught, which was, give on the small stuff, and keep the big stuff hidden.

In other words, act like a damn shinobi and detract the attention from what they want to what you can use. That wasn't as difficult to Naruto, who could talk rings around his friends and utterly confound his enemies. Give and take, just manipulate the information while you do so, as Sakura had advised him, after his first four failed attempts at passing the Torture and Interrogation portion of his ANBU exams, which, ironically enough, he'd had under Morino Ibiki.

Ibiki focused sharply on the blonde. "Snake-bastard? You mean Orochimaru? One of the Sannin? Wait, Sound? I've never heard of any such hidden village."

"You're kidding, right? Otogakure no Sato? You know, in Rice Country? Formed by Orochimaru, formerly of the Akatsuki, formerly of Konohagakure no Sato, left because he wanted to continue his experiments after he fled from Konoha and extremely pissed off at Sandaime-jiji 'cos he wanted the Yondaime Hokage position and Sandaime-jiji gave it to blondy instead of him...you know, that village?

"How well do you know Orochimaru?" Ibiki demanded.

"When you say how well, do you mean like as in heard of him, or seen him, or fought him, or do you mean like snuggly-snakes, 'cos y'know that's just ew-yuck." Naruto made retching noises and crossed his eyes to emphasise his complete disgust, managing to make himself look faintly green.

Even Ibiki looked disgusted at that.

"Hmn. I first met him when he bit my team-mate at our first Chuunin exams a few years back when we were twelve. He gave him the 'Heaven' curse seal and did something funky to my stomach which made it impossible to use or focus my chakra, some sort of five-point seal, but ero-sennin got rid of it.

A little while after that I summoned Gamabunta for ero-sennin to fight the snake-bastard and I fought his lackey Kabuto for a while, but I got knocked out, and when I was out he snake-bastard tried to kill me but he got Tsunade-baa-chan in the chest with Kusanagi. It was a good thing she had her Genesis seal though, 'cos it healed her right up and she saved my life.

The snake-bastard got away though. He kept popping up constantly after that, and we're currently at war with him, which is why I've told you this much, 'cos if you are keeping me under genjutsu I haven't said anything you don't already know.

The last thing I really remember though is being on a battlefield, Leaf against Sound, the Three Legendary Sannin on the field again against each other, and us, their protege, us, fighting each other...at least, until Sasuke-bastard did something to me. Some sort of seal...made me feel like I was being ripped apart from the inside..felt so..." Naruto started retching for real this time and Ibiki just managed to pivot the chair to it's side in time for Naruto to vomit noisily on the floor. He hadn't eaten anything so it wasn't much more than stomach bile, but Naruto still felt horrible.

He closed his eyes, trying to calm himself when flashes of the final battle caught up with him, and he saw again the look of triumph and cruel heartlessness in Sasuke's red-stained eyes. He saw the look of horror on ero-sennin's face and heard the muted screams from familiar voices. A tear started to form, and Naruto screwed his eyes closed harshly to force it away.

Naruto felt his chair tilted back up and his face was wiped with a damp cloth. He opened his eyes to see one of the masked ANBU holding the cloth in one hand and offering him a sip of cold water in a clear plastic cup, which the ANBU held to his lips for him. Naruto sipped at it carefully, so as not to make himself sick again. He finished and gave the ANBU a wan smile and a quiet thanks.

"You said 'Leaf against Sound', didn't you?" Ibiki asked quietly.

"Yeah," Naruto said, sounding tired.

"And you believe yourself to be in the hands of the enemy."

"Maybe, maybe not. I suppose could just be delusional, but I'm not going to be able to do anything, am I?"

Ibiki clenched his teeth. "Look, one of the things I've been asked to find out is the threat against our Yondaime Hokage. Our agent stated that you thought Konoha had a Godaime and not a Yondaime, can you explain this to us, as it won't conflict against yourself even if you have rationalized this to be a trap. As this is obviously old information to you."

Naruto laughed dryly. "Fuck! Go in for the kill why don't you? Shit, you bastard." Naruto's laugh this time was interspersed with gulping breathes of air, and it took a few moments for him to calm down.

"Fine, if that's what you want. I'll give you a history lesson from my..._**unique**_...point of view." Naruto sighed. "The Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, was Konoha's most beloved Hokage. He was especially famous for his actions in the Iwa-Konoha war. He was named the 'Yellow Flash' because of Hiraishin no Jutsu, and his Rasengan technique. He died on the 10th of October seventeen years ago when the great and terrible Kyuubi no Kitsune, the Nine-Tailed Fox Demon, attacked Konoha and tried to raze it to the ground."

Naruto paused, taking in a few deep breaths. "The Kyuubi was too powerful to be killed, and so the Yondaime summoned the Shinigami and used the Shiki Fujin to seal the Kyuubi away for all time, only the cost of the jutsu was the soul of the user, in this case, Namikaze Minato. The Kyuubi was stopped, but Konoha lost their much loved Yondaime."

Closing his eyes, Naruto continued, speaking softly. "The Sandaime took over again, and Konoha continued to prosper, until Orochimaru invaded Konoha and killed the Sandaime, leaving it to the council to select a new Hokage. The Hokage they selected was Tsunade-hime, who was brought back to Konoha by the Toad Hermit, Jiraiya. Thus Tsunade-baa-chan became Konoha's Godaime."

Naruto chuckled softly when he finished, the old feeling of deep-seated loneliness and sorrow that he always got when thinking about the Yondaime and his sacrifice and the impact that had on Konoha and his own life. The guilt at being the Jinchuuriki of the Leaf, along with the anger and the frustration of his position rising like familiar bile in his throat.

"So as far as you know both Sarutobi Sandaime-sama and Namikaze Yondaime-sama are both dead, and Konoha is at war with the village created by the rogue Snake Sannin?" Ibiki clarified.

"Yeah..." Naruto said quietly.

Ibiki stood and wiped a hand over his face, sighing with what sounded like disappointment. "I'll be busy for a bit. Stand guard until further notice," he said, nodding to the ANBU. After a moment he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto forced himself to relax back in the chair, since there was literally nothing else he could do.

* * *

Tbc...

* * *


End file.
